Eastwood awarded guild's lifetime prize

December 12, 2005

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- After roughing up bad guys on the big screen for decades, and most recently using a little tough love to train a woman boxer, Clint Eastwood will receive the Directors Guild of America's lifetime achievement award. The 75-year-old actor-director will be honored during the 58th annual DGA Awards on Jan. 28. "As one of the most prolific, versatile directors in the history of the medium, there isn't a genre that Clint Eastwood hasn't mastered in the more than 25 films he has directed over the past 35 years," DGA president Michael Apted said. Only 31 directors have received the DGA's lifetime honor, including Mike Nichols, Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen, Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock. Eastwood also will receive the Producers Guild of America's Milestone Award for contributions to the movie industry, to be presented Jan. 22. After starring in Italian "spaghetti" Westerns in the 1960s, Eastwood portrayed a tough-guy police detective in his "Dirty Harry" movies. "Million Dollar Baby," his 2004 film about a woman boxer who rises to the top with Eastwood as coach, won four Oscars, including best picture and best director for Eastwood.